GUELPH POLITICAST #437 – The Cemetery is Not a Scary Place (feat. Paul Taylor)

Guelph Politicast

If you want to know the history of a place, go to the cemetery, and this is no less true for Woodlawn Memorial Park. It’s natural in this Halloween month to seek out some spookiness, and conventional wisdom says that there’s nowhere spookier than the local cemetery, but our guest this week spent a lifetime promoting a simple message: Your local cemetery is not a very scary place.

Woodlawn Cemetery opened in 1854, and at the time it was at a location that was well beyond the Guelph city limits. This was purposeful because in 1853, Guelph passed a bylaw that said you couldn’t have a cemetery in the city limits, which at the time affected three cemeteries in the core including the Union located along Baker Street parking. We know the end of that story 160 years later.

In all that time, the story of so many Guelphites ended at Woodlawn, and for 44 years that meant it ended at Paul Taylor. As a young man he brought is experience in construction to his first job at the cemetery where he was, of all things, a gravedigger. The year was 1977 and a few years later a still young Taylor found himself in the position of superintendent, which is a position that would later be renamed General Manager. In 2021 he retired, and now he's bringing that experience to this podcast.

Taylor joins us this week to talk about his life’s work, and his life’s passion. He will tell us how he’s worked his whole career to change the perception of what a cemetery is, and thee cemetery's role as keepers of local history. He will also talk about whether hanging out at the cemetery as a place to enjoy the outdoors might be more than a trend, his favourite places at Woodlawn, the things about the park only he can appreciate, and the surprisingly bright future for burials among millennials.

So let's talk about why the cemetery is awesome on this week's Guelph Politicast!

You can learn more about Woodlawn Memorial Park at their website. At their website, you can book a tour, or get pdf copies of maps and brochures that will show you places of interest in all 80 acres of the property. You can also stop by the office on weekdays from 8 am to 4:30 pm to get information and recommendations for where to visit.

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